Canada’s power and utility companies face yet another year in flux. Rising costs coincide with the ongoing need to invest in aging infrastructure and legacy technology systems. Transformation is not optional for utility organizations—it is critical to meet rising and evolving demand, achieve sustainability goals, modernize infrastructure, leverage technology, comply with regulations, and satisfy customer expectations. Those that adapt will be better positioned to deliver reliable, sustainable, and value-driven services in the future.

Looking ahead, a prosperous energy future is on the horizon; one where utilities conduct safer, real-time, data-informed inspections; predictive maintenance eliminates costly downtime; and a strong data foundation delivers actionable insights to drive consistent business value.

But there’s a large obstacle in the way. The energy industry now grapples with an exceptionally cost-constrained environment and regulatory constraints, which slow its ability to create the capabilities needed to reach a prosperous future. To bridge the gap, power companies must unlock value from their existing systems and data sets. Many utilities are looking at upgrading their existing SAP solutions, including their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.

56% of the power, utilities, and renewable (PUR) companies we surveyed link digital transformation to increased enterprise value

ERP software transformation (including SAP and Oracle) is only the beginning, and part of a larger picture to:

• integrate core platforms;
• standardize and simplify end-to-end business processes;
• centralize and analyze siloed data; and
• drive better customer experiences, new capabilities, and business value.

Here’s how.

3 imperatives to use ERP as a catalyst for digital transformation

1. Make ERP transformation a strategic imperative, not just a tech upgrade

Our internal survey revealed that 90% of PUR companies say having access to timely, complete, and trusted data and analytics improves enterprise value by creating actionable insights to inform decisions. But organizations are sometimes tempted to opt for multiple, short-term technology tools. This approach isn't sustainable, nor does it address all their business objectives.

Technology shortcuts can result in increased technical debt and lack of consistent data and reporting, which constrains an organization’s budget and bandwidth, and takes up 33% of software developers' work time to manage.¹

That’s why the quest for more and better data must start with robust data governance and a digital foundation. ERP transformation should be seen as the catalyst for fixing that foundation because it interacts with the largest share of an organization’s technology architecture, people, and processes.  

In regulated industries, it’s easy to fall into the trap of treating an ERP upgrade as a mere software update. However, this approach overlooks the strategic opportunity for much-needed business transformation enabled by technology. ERP systems are the backbone of business process and data management, capturing everything from financial transactions and procurement activities to inventory tracking and materials management. They serve as the foundation for guiding scaling strategies and operational efficiency. But ERP is only one piece of the puzzle. Utilities also generate vast amounts of operational data from IoT sensors, geospatial software, and engineering systems such as image repositories and document storage platforms.

As ERP systems evolve to deliver more timely and accurate data, they unlock new possibilities for utilities to integrate this data with asset, geospatial, and operational information. This integration moves beyond traditional approaches where data is siloed—either as separate temporal databases or geospatial databases—toward creating one unified geospatial and temporal database. The result is an enhanced digital twin that provides deeper, faster insights for decision-makers.

Digital twins: A single source of truth to power decisions

Instead of managing multiple disconnected digital twins, utilities can envision a single, dynamic digital twin that continuously evolves and becomes more sophisticated over time. This enhanced digital twin is founded on a modern platform-based technology architecture, the transformation to which will greatly reduce technical debt currently constraining utilities IT departments.

This unified model merges planning and operations, enabling analysis across multiple timelines—from near real-time monitoring to long-term forecasting. Such capabilities empower utilities to optimize decision-making, improve asset management, and deliver better services by leveraging integrated data across their entire ecosystem.

At its core, this transformation benefits not only the organization but also its people and end customers. Employees can work more effectively and safely, leveraging integrated data to make informed decisions and streamline processes. Customers, in turn, benefit from improved service delivery—reliable, affordable, sustainable, and safe electricity that meets their needs today and into the future.

2. Prioritize early value capture to drive program momentum

Utilities should focus on capturing early value from ERP transformation to build momentum and scale impact. AI-driven analytics offer a powerful way to unlock insights from ERP data, driving operational efficiency, asset optimization, and improved customer outcomes, but data architecture will be the core of any AI activities, as it will streamline and secure the movement of data from legacy systems to new technologies.

Importantly, AI, GenAI, and agentic AI can enhance the ERP-enabled digital twin. These technologies help integrate geospatial and temporal data, model infrastructure performance, and automate predictive and prescriptive actions.

We don’t need to reinvent the wheel—adjacent sectors like oil and gas have successfully leveraged AI for predictive maintenance, safety improvements, and supply chain optimization. By adapting these proven approaches, utilities can quickly achieve early wins, such as reducing downtime, improving grid reliability, and streamlining operations.

Utilities are already realizing significant benefits from AI-driven advancements in back-office functions like finance, HR, and customer service. For example, call centers are leveraging AI to improve customer interactions and resolve issues faster. In grid planning and rate case preparation, AI enhances forecasting and decision-making. On the field, autonomous inspections are transforming work management and vegetation management, improving safety and efficiency.

As these advancements increasingly integrate back into the ERP-enabled digital twin—rather than remaining siloed—the benefits will compound.

3. Use foundational systems to pave the way for physical AI innovations

As utilities embrace ERP transformation and AI-driven analytics, they lay the groundwork for the next frontier: physical AI and robotics. While robotics in utility operations aren't new, recent innovations are pushing the boundaries of possible opportunities.

The last few years have seen remarkable progress in physical AI and robotics technologies:

• Intelligent Drones: Edge computing enhances the effectiveness of robotic inspections with drones, increasing ROI as operator time decreases.
• Robotic Solar Panel Installation: Robots strong enough to install thousands of solar panels in China and Australia are revolutionizing renewable energy deployment and reducing the need for large human crews.

By connecting the workforce with advanced robotics, sensors, and edge computing, utilities will look to achieve unprecedented levels of integration and efficiency across their organization in the coming decade.

As robotics and physical AI become more prevalent, the foundation laid by ERP transformation and enhanced digital twins becomes even more critical. A unified approach will amplify the value of robotics and sensors, and launch utilities in the next phase of the fourth industrial revolution: the physical AI revolution.

The Deloitte difference

We’ve seen power companies jump into new tech without preparing their digital foundation. Skipping the integration step with ERP stops your organization from realizing the potential full scope of AI’s transformative impact on core processes and capabilities.

We start all technology modernization initiatives with a critical foundational step, namely the Vision-to-Value phase (Phase 0). This phase sets the direction, value proposition, and success criteria for a transformation journey, ensuring that subsequent efforts are focused, aligned, and value-driven.

• Align on expected value at the start
• Understand the architectural landscape
• Determine the transformation roadmap
• Prepare for readiness to execute and achieve value

Without a systems-based approach, utilities might struggle with multiple systems propagating data challenges in their operations. Integrating core systems with ERP is an important step to avoid undoing and redoing operational processes and save costs along the way.

Our energy and technology specialists help our clients set the groundwork for upgrading and integrating systems, which is a mandatory precursor to transform data into sustainable success.

Start your ERP journey for a prosperous energy future

Bottom line? ERP digital transformation is your strategic catalyst for an efficient, reliable, and affordable service. And the time to act is now. Utilities that seize this moment will pave the way for a smarter, more sustainable future.

Deloitte stands ready to partner with utilities on this transformative journey, bringing deep industry experience and innovative solutions to ensure success every step of the way.

Let’s start your ERP journey today.